Goldfish care. This articles aim is to give general advice and tips to those hobbyists who wish to keep goldfish, and to give you some understanding of your goldfish needs in keeping them healthy and happy.



Aquarium Setups.

Before you even think of buying your goldfish, you need to buy these items for your goldfish care. Note: depending where you live, you may not need some of these items. An aquarium and stand, aquarium hood, fluorescent strip light, thermometer, aquarium filter, with airline tubing, and air stone, gravel, siphon, buckets (used for water changes), freshwater test kits (for checking ammonia, nitrite and nitrate), seeding kit ( for ammonia bacteria etc), ornaments, and plants.

Caring For Goldfish.

In part, goldfish care is knowing what to feed them, and when, goldfish are omnivorous and will eat anything they can. There are pre-packaged goldfish food in floating flake and pellet form, that are good for comets and common goldfish. Feeding your fish twice in a day is fine, but only feed them enough which will get eaten in 2 to 3 minutes or so, or you will end up with water quality problems later.

Fancy Goldfish Care.

Fancy goldfish care is different compared to common type goldfish in feeding and aquarium requirements. They need temperatures ranging from 65 to 75 F, so need heating within the tank, also, the temperature should never fall lower than 50F. Fancies should never be let to feed on the surface, as this could cause buoyancy problems and death.feed fancy's sinking pellets or granules. Fancies may well grow up to 6 inches in length, so as a rule keep one fish per 10 gallons of water.

Goldfish Care - Mixing Comets With Fancies.

Understanding the difficulties that would arise with keeping both common and fancies together in the same tank, you first need to know fully each types requirements. I mentioned above the feeding aspect, but the problem is far greater than that. Both commons and comets are cold water fish, heating for them is not required, their movement is quicker and they are stronger than the fancies, and are unlikely to succumb to buoyancy problems. But they are very likely to attack your fancies and kill or injure them. Fancy's can not tolerate cold water, or temperature fluctuations,they need heating in the tank, slow in movement, and can not compete with other fish for food. Your goldfish care and health is a must, keep them apart.

Varied Diet.

For the health of your goldfish care must be taken in feeding them food that has been specifically made for them, on occasion you can also give them peas (remove the outer skin), also blanched green leafy vegetables. For fancies pre-soak these well so they sink, and remove any that float on the surface.

Sickness And Disease.

Striving for good health is a priority in good goldfish care, using good practice with your fish and aquarium, disease problems will be very few. Poor house keeping of your fish and aquarium is the main cause of sickness and disease, toxics in the tank, dirty water,, over crowding, poor filtration, stress and rough handling, rapid water temperature changes, and so on, and can go on to create problems with bacteria, viruses, fungi and of course protozoa. Puting new fish into the tank can also bring disease and sickness to the rest of your fish, so its wise to quarantine new fish for a few days to make sure they are ok.Wash new plants, If you experience any problems then speak to your local pet store or vet for advice.

Ammonia And Chlorine.

Tap water now in most places contains chlorine, and is harmful to your fish, for your goldfish care, each week do a 20% water change, before you put tap water into your aquarium put a airstone in it and run for 24 hours, this dispels the chlorine. but always make sure the water is the same temperature as the aquarium. If all is well ammonia and nitrite readings should be zero in your aquarium, with nitrate reading 10ppm ideally, or less.